Applying social marketing principles to develop an evidence-based hepatitis B awareness campaign in Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders

Introduction: Social marketing, the application of commercial marketing concepts to promote healthy behavior change, is an evidence-based, best practice for health interventions. Principles of social marketing may be particularly relevant in reaching isolated, limited English proficient, immigrant populations. Its application in Asian Pacific Islanders (APIs), however, has not been documented in the peer reviewed literature. Hepatitis B (HBV), a major health disparity in APIs, affects 10-15% of APIs nationally compared to 0.3% of the U.S. population.

Methods: The B Free CEED: National Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Hepatitis B Disparities is undertaking a social marketing campaign to raise awareness of HBV in Korean and Chinese immigrant communities in NYC. This presentation will focus on evidence-based social marketing activities of audience segmentation and the Four P's of marketing (i.e., product, price, place and promotion) that have guided the formative data collection phase of the campaign.

Results & Discussion: To date N=600 surveys and N=6 focus groups have been conducted to identify channels for health information, branding concepts, and define the Four P's. Preliminary analysis indicate that native language media and physicians are the most common resources for health information; discrepancies exist between channels most used and trusted within Korean and Chinese groups and across the groups. Potential messages and how target audience will be segmented will be shared.

Conclusions: Utilizing social marketing principles may be key to developing a culturally relevant, targeted campaign to raise awareness and address the multi-level factors that contribute to this disparity in API communities.